I feel a little bit silly if I let an entry sit on top (especially if I don't like it). When I update in rapid succession, this is probably the case. Especially if I'm talking about something that makes me squirm, or feel vulnerable. Some people think I'm rediculously open, but it's only if you aren't looking. I won't sing if I catch you looking at me, I won't be naked if anyone can see. I'm a deeply private exhibitionist.

Let me complain for a moment. I think I'm allowed.

If anyone ever refers to the middle ages as "Dark", they are getting a kick in the shins.. What the hell? Is any age more dark than another? There are violent ages, and I wouldn't deny that the early middle ages were violent, but so was the early modern period. What's worse was that they (girls in one of my classes) were talking about it in a cultural fashion (and obliquely, in terms of sexuality), and it makes me so upset. To sweep across Europe and say that it is all bereft of culture is just the silliest thing I've ever heard. Where there are humans there is culture, rich and fascinating. Why oh why are we speaking in terms that some rank little fellow in the Enlightenment came up with?

"People in the past can't stand up for themselves," I spluttered, mouth full of plum. "That's why they have me." My best friend laughed, "only because your mouth is full of plum. This is why I don't take literature classes: I love literature and I don't like being in classes where I hate my classmates."

You can get away with a lot in academia, but nothing I heard spoken in this class would have been given two seconds in a History class. Why do they work under the vague idea that "[all] people in the past" are repulsed by sex? What, every single human before 1970 was repressed? It's impossible to generalize about the Middle Ages and sexuality and I'd prefer if you didn't. It's a complicated, complex time, and you can't say anything about "people back then" because you will be wrong in major ways. It all depends on who you are using as your (automatically problematic) source.

There are many tomes about sexuality, and its history, and it just makes me ill to hear people make broad, rediculous generalizations about Medieval sexuality.

I miss taking Medieval history classes, because I feel rusty with this or I would have taken the girls in my class to task. I got down my books and thumbed through them, and I enjoy it. I sometimes feel the need to justify why I study so-called Western civilizations, but the Middle Ages has such a popular bad rap that I don't feel half as bad about it. It's a complicated, interesting time, and there's always work to be done, no matter the field or the geographical area.

I have a mind to narrow myself down a bit, but we'll see where Wales takes me. It's lookin' like I will be going to Bangor. Hoorah!

2002-10-02, Medieval people

before / after

archives / website / hello book / diaryland